The Vesper Sun
by ElfDrake
Summary: Aisha, Bodil, and Obi-Wan know that there is a traitor in the Jedi Order and that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine is Darth Sideus. Training Aisha in the Jedi ways, Obi-Wan and Bodil both know that they are training Palpatine's daughter and a former Sith Lady. Before they defeat Palpatine, trust will be broken, and they will be betrayed. Sequel to The Path of Night.


**This is the sequel to my story, The Path of Night. Here is the link to The Path of Night: www dot fanfiction dot net/s/10274468/1/The-Path-of-Night**

**Prologue:**

**22 BBY**

When she fell asleep, the tears drying on her cheek weren't just tears of fear. There were tears of joy too.

There was more happiness in her waking life than in her dreams. In reality, she was able to be happy. In sleep, she dreamt, and her dreams were torment. She didn't dream about freakish realities or sweet nothings. Her dreams were filled with memories, and her memories were filled with 35 years of emotional torture.

She dreamed of her childhood throughout which she had been forced to watch people's being tortured. With every scream, with every flinch, she could feel the Force rising within her, even in her sleep.

Her dreams shifted to her adulthood thus far. Some, like her childhood, most of her adult life had been unpleasant. Some had been spent watching people's being tortured. But unlike with her childhood, her adulthood contained years and years of pretending to be a perfect Sith Lady in order to help others. She could still see all the injuries and death and trauma she had inflicted. In her dreams, it was like she was still there, hating herself and hoping some Jedi would strike her dead.

And then, her dreams focused on the last few days. She had been through a lot. She had met her younger half-brother, Anakin, for the first time. She had met Obi-Wan Kenobi again, who had inspired her to make a difference. She had met someone whose life she had ruined. She had gotten hurt more than once in the past few days, and she had broken down when she was needed. But she had been trusted to track down Darth Tyranus's killer. And she had been inducted into the Jedi Order as a Jedi Knight, but she would still have to go through training.

Once again, her dreams shifted to another topic. For the first time in ages, she dreamt of what could come to pass. She dreamt of training, and Obi-Wan hating her for her incompetence. She dreamt of Bodil, whose life she had ruined, tormenting her for what she had done and what an awful person she was. She dreamt of Anakin rejecting her for her past. But most of all, she dreamt of what her father, Darth Sidious, the Grand Chancellor Palpatine, could do to destroy the Jedi: his marching into the Temple, his recruiting traitors, his using the clones against them all.

She whimpered, and the Force tingled through every one of her veins and exploded away from her. She screamed, and she slipped from sleep into unconsciousness.

আ

She awoke to voices. ". . .and every Jedi in the Temple woke up from the blast!" one Jedi was explaining. It took her a minute to identify the voice's owner — Bodil.

"It wasn't under Aisha's control," a second voice insisted. Obi-Wan Kenobi. "She didn't mean to do that." Aisha Skywalker, formerly Aishling Palpatine, had met Obi-Wan Kenobi only a few days ago, and still, he was defending her.

"It's something that happens when I get scared. Unfortunately, that's often," Aisha murmured, trying to push herself out of bed. She failed, her limbs too heavy and tired to move.

"We'll have to fix that then. We'll start today by working on how to get you to fight," Obi-Wan stated, offering his hand to help Aisha up. She accepted it, flushing slightly from embarrassment.

"What about the traitor? Shouldn't we start with that?" Aisha protested quietly enough that only Bodil and Obi-Wan could hear, furrowing her brow.

"Or Palpatine's being Darth Sidious," Bodil suggested, her voice a bit louder than Obi-Wan or Aisha would have liked. Aisha cringed and stared down at the floor, clenching her jaw.

"Are you okay?" Obi-Wan asked Aisha, placing his hand on her shoulder. Aisha couldn't help but lean into the touch.

"Well enough, I suppose. Well enough to try to begin training at the very least," Aisha replied.

আ

Six hours later, Aisha wiped the sweat from her brow, panting heavily. Training, she decided, was only better than it had been before in one respect: she was training to do good, not evil, and that made it infinitely better. She was still no good with a blade, however.

It was much to her relief that practice was done for the day. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to happen afterwards: talking to Bodil and Obi-Wan, or just one, or something else.

Panting, Aisha walked out of the room to the corridor. Bodil followed her after sheathing her lightsaber. Much to Aisha's chagrin, neither Bodil nor Obi-Wan had really broken a sweat. Bodil gave Aisha a wide smile, displaying all of her numerous teeth. "Walk with me," Bodil said. From anyone else, that statement may not have been particularly concerning. From Bodil, it certainly was.

Four years ago, Bodil's life had been upended by no one other than Aisha herself. Darth Sideus, or Palpatine as he was also known, had told Aisha to capture Count Dooku. Aisha had had to capture him from inside a Jedi Base, and her father, Sideus, had told her to dispose with any in her path. Knowing that death would be a mercy compared to any that her father captured, Aisha slaughtered most of the base, but she had let some go for the sake of her conscience. Bodil had been one of those who had escaped. Bodil had sunken down into anger and thus killed Darth Tyranus. However, Aisha and Obi-Wan had found her, and Aisha and Bodil had talked, now having a truce.

"Okay. . ." Aisha said, her voice just a tad unsteady. She bit her lower lip, her eyes a bit wide as she looked at Bodil. The other woman began to walk first, so Aisha followed, a couple steps behind.

"We need to go after Sideus. That's our first concern," Bodil said, her face neutral. From her eyes and stance, Aisha could feel her determination and anger.

Aisha took a deep breath and let it out, shuddering. "We need to find the traitor first."

Bodil stared at her, biting her lower lip. She looked almost like a lion with her mane of spiky hair. "I think Sideus comes first," Bodil snapped.

Aisha thought for a second. For all her life, she had watched people be tortured by her father. To say she wanted him gone would be one hell of an understatement. But Aisha, unlike Bodil, was not under the illusion that no other Sith existed. She wanted Sideus around that much longer so that she could guess the Siths' plans.

Then Aisha realized something major. Bodil had had a thing against the Sith, but she may have known Aisha was working with the Jedi. Bodil could be the traitor. Aisha's breath came faster until she was almost hyperventilating, and her panic began to effuse across her mind. She clenched her fists and and tried to concentrate on keeping her mind in a state where she could still think.

"Yes, perhaps we should. We ought to watch him," Aisha finally said, ignoring the shiver barrelling down her spine. She wanted to just fall apart, just as she always did. But for now, and possibly forever, she would have to do better.

She would have to be strong. She was training to be a Jedi, spying on her Sith Lord father, spying on Bodil, looking for a traitor, and dealing with the emotional torture she had endured her entire life.

**And so it begins. **

**~~Elf**


End file.
